INTRODUCTION

The area of the metropolitan borough of St. Pancras (2,694 acres)
is practically coterminous with the pre-1899 civil parish. In
Norman times the parish included land eastward to Clerkenwell,
from which it was divided by the river Fleet, where Warner Street
and Farringdon Road are now. A few hundred acres now in St. Marylebone,
part of the manor of Rugemere, were also in St. Pancras. A rough estimate
gives 3,300 acres as the area at the time of the survey of 1086, entered in
Domesday Book as follows:

"Ralph, a canon, holds Rugemere. It was assessed for 2 hides. The
land is 1 carucate and a half. There is 1 plough in the demense and (another)
half plough can be made. Wood for hedges, and (rendering) 4 shillings. This
land is worth 35 shillings; in the time of King Edward 40 shillings. It was,
in the time of King Edward, and is now, in the demesne of the canons."

"The canons of St. Paul's hold Tothele. It was always assessed for
5 hides. The land is 4 carucates. There are 3 ploughs and a half, and another
half can be made. There are 4 villeins and 4 bordars. Wood for 150 pigs;
and 20 shillings for the herbage. With all its profits it is worth 4 pounds;
the same when received; in the time of King Edward 100 shillings. The
manor lay, and lies in the demesne of St. Paul's."

"At St. Pancras the canons of St. Paul's hold four hides. [Cantlowes.]
The land is 2 carucates. The villeins have only 1 plough, and another plough
can be made. Wood for hedges. Pasture for the cattle, and (rendering)
20 pence rent. There are four villeins who hold this land under the canons,
and 7 cottagers. With all its profits it is worth 40 shillings; the same when
received; in king Edward's time 60 shillings."

"At St. Pancras Walter, a canon, of St. Paul's holds one hide. The
land is one carucate. There is one plough and 24 men who render 30 shillings
per annum. This land lay, and lies, in the demesne of the Church of St. Paul."

An estimate of the population at that distant date may be made from
the figures given by assuming that each of the 53 men represented a family of
five persons, which gives a total of 265. If to these we add slaves, servants,
officials and retainers it appears fairly safe to say that the total population of
St. Pancras at the time of William the Conqueror did not exceed 300. This
number may be contrasted with the present population of 200,000. There is
no reason to think that the density of population in the rural parishes of
Middlesex in the 11th century exceeded a few hundreds. We know that as
late as 1674 the neighbouring parish of Hornsey, with a comparable area, had
about 800 inhabitants.

In the present volume on Highgate we are mainly concerned with the
manors of Tottenhall and Cantlowes, both endowments of prebends in St.
Paul's Cathedral. All the northern part of the parish lay within these two
manors, the boundary between them being the road now variously named
High Street, Camden Town, Kentish Town Road, Highgate Road and West
Hill. From Merton Lane the dividing line ran near the site of the road now
called Fitzroy Park as far as the point where it turns eastward towards The
Grove, at Highgate. From that point the boundary ran northwards to the
parish boundary which it joined immediately eastward of the site now occupied
by Beechwood. Cantlowes lay to the east and Tottenhall to the west of this
line. The manors were seldom "in hand," but were leased by the prebendaries
for three lives, that is, until the death of all three persons named in the lease,
but the leases were always renewed by the insertion of a new life when one
dropped out. In addition to the court baron belonging to every manor, the
lords of each of these manors owned the Court Leet, which met yearly for the
appointment of parish constables and other officers and exercised a certain
control over sanitary matters, nuisances, etc., and had jurisdiction in matters
affecting the king's peace. The Court Baron dealt with the titles to land within
the manor, and its rolls constitute a complete land-registry so far as copyhold
land is concerned.

From a survey of the manor of Tottenhall made in the time of Henry
VIII (fn. 1) we learn that the lessees of the demesne lands (or home farm of the
manor), who then paid a yearly rent of £38, had also to supply the Prebendary
every year with three good loads of hay, carried into the manor place at their
own expense, or pay 15s. instead. In the leases the manor was always described
as the prebend, manor or lordship of Tottenhall or Tottenham Court in St.
Pancras or Kentish Town, and also the woods and fuel lying besides Highgate,
parcel of the said prebend. This phrase "woods and fuel" meant, in the
words of the above-mentioned survey, "a wood att Higate parcel of the
said manor and prebend which the prebendary kepith in his owne handes
conteyning by estimacon two hundreth acr' of ground or more." It can
be identified with Sherrick's Farm, mentioned in this volume under Ken
Wood (p. 126). In the year 1314 the woodward, Henry Slademan, having
charge of the wood called "Schyrwyk" was removed from office. (fn. 2) In 1650
there were five pieces of pasture called Sherrick Wood (48 acres), Sherrick
Wood (50 acres), and Sherrick Wood (10 acres 1 rood), all rented by Nathaniel
Syddens. (fn. 3) The farm-house stood on the road side (when Hampstead Lane
followed the parish boundary) slightly to the north of the site now occupied
by Beechwood, where Lady Southampton's house stood at the end of the 18th
century. The old farm-house in 1650 had four lower rooms, two chambers and
two garrets.

The manor house of Tottenhall stood on the east side of Hampstead
Road, between Tolmer Square and Euston Road. In 1757 Euston Road was
made across the demesne land of this manor between Hampstead Road and
the present parish church of St. Pancras.

The manor continued in the hands of the Crown after the reign of
Henry VIII, subject to payment of an annual rent to the Prebendary and fines
on renewal of the lease from time to time. A sub-lessee in 1609 was William
Cholmeley of Highgate, who had a lease for 31 years from that date, and
mentioned in his will (fn. 4) that he, as steward of the manor, had £22 or £23 in
hand from fines, due to the Crown. In 1650 Thomas Harrison of London
bought the manor from the Commonwealth (fn. 5) and in 1655 also purchased the
Crown interest. (fn. 6) In 1661, the Crown having recovered possession, granted
the manor to Sir Henry Wood, an officer of the royal household, for 41 years,
on account of £500 owing to him by the late king for board wages in lieu of
diet. (fn. 7) The reversionary interest belonging to the Crown was granted to
Isabella, Countess of Arlington, wife of Henry Fitzroy, 1st Duke of Grafton,
a son of Charles II by Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland. She died on 7th
February, 1722–3, and her son Charles, 2nd Duke of Grafton, obtained from
the Prebendary on 18th July, 1723, a fresh lease for three lives. The periodical
renewal of these leases for lives was terminated by an Act of Parliament in
1768, which vested the freehold in Charles Fitzroy, brother of Augustus
Henry, 3rd Duke of Grafton, subject to a ground rent of £300 per annum.
Their widowed mother married James Jeffries, esquire. The freehold land
belonging to the manor covered 254 acres 3 roods and 17 perches, and Mr.
Fitzroy (afterwards Baron Southampton) also acquired the profits arising
from the Courts Leet and Courts Baron.

Regarding Cantlowes there is a record (fn. 8) that in the year 1546 William
Leyton, gentleman, "Prebendary of the Prebend of Cantlowes alias Kentishe
Towne alias Cantelers," with Edward, Bishop of London, and the Dean and
Chapter of St. Paul's, granted to King Henry VIII, the said Prebend.

Whatever the significance of this grant, the manor certainly remained
in the ownership of succeeding prebendaries, and was leased by them for lives.
The holding of the Courts Leet and Courts Baron, however, was sometimes
kept in their own hands by the prebendaries. The manor house of Cantlowes
stood on the east side of the King's Road, where that thoroughfare is now
crossed by the railway, near Randolph Street. It was described in 1649 (on the
Commonwealth Survey) as consisting of a little courtyard, a porch entry, hall,
parlour, kitchen, milk house, a little yard, a brushing room, two pairs of stairs,
two little rooms next the parlour, built with timber, an orchard, a fair garden
with a brick wall on the south, a base yard, barn and two stables, cart house and
little pingle, containing 3 acres 1 rood, then leased to Richard Gualter at £16
a year, together with fields which extended over the land now bounded by
King's Road, Kentish Town Road, High Street, Camden Town, and Crowndale
Road. The total area of the demesne lands was 213 acres. The lessee had to
provide meat, drink and entertainment for one dinner for the steward, bailiff
and three or four friends, and feed for their horses. This would be on the
occasion of their holding manor courts. The Prebendary was entitled to the
first crop of three acres of meadow. (fn. 9)

The four villeins in Cantlowes mentioned in Domesday Book were
predecessors of the copyhold tenants who afterwards held all the land within
the manor from the parish boundary on the north to the freehold land on the
south, that is, near Leighton Road. Inheritance in the manor was by gavelkind,
that is to say if a copyholder died intestate his land did not descend to his
eldest son but to all his sons equally (if he had more than one), and in the
absence of a son to all the daughters equally. If two or more persons holding
copyhold wished to have it divided up amongst them so that each owned his
own portion separately, a committee of the copyholders would divide it up into
parts of equal value and lots would be cast to determine the ownership of each.

The historical notes in this volume do not claim to constitute a History
of Highgate, but contain as many authenticated facts as possible concerning
the buildings described and the sites on which they stand. A complete
history would require the inclusion of the portion of Highgate lying in
Hornsey, which is outside the County of London and is therefore beyond the
scope of the Survey. These notes will be found to throw an interesting light
on the families and personalities connected with the village. The human
element is brought out in many entries in the Court Leet records, of which a
few specimens may be selected as follows: In 1658 William Mollineux,
Henry Lee, Rodigon Portman and others were each fined 20s. for selling
ale in black pots being less than measure appointed by the statute, while
others were fined for selling ale and beer without a licence. An alehouse
keeper named John Buckland was fined 40s. for allowing unlawful gaming in
his yard, namely play at "cloythcailes" otherwise Nine Pins. The
churchwardens and constable were each fined 10s. because they had failed to
give notice in church, on the Sunday after Easter, of days fixed for parishioners
to "endeavour themselves to the amending of the highways." At the same
court a disturbance was caused by William Peirce of Kentish Town who abused
the jury for fining him and "made a great noise by talking aloud about
unnecessary things," so that it was impossible for the steward and jury to hear
each other speak and the business was interrupted. "Although the steward
did then in a friendly manner admonish the said William Pierce" he persisted
and was fined 40s. for his "uncivil gestures, scoffing, clamorous and
impertinent speech," the said sum being "far less than his demerits required."
In 1668 it was found that the inhabitants were wanting a Pair of Shooting
Butts and that the Stocks at Highgate were decayed. In 1673 Sir Thomas
Hooke (of Cromwell House) was fined for allowing his drain to run in the
highway in a ditch belonging to the manor of Cantlowes, to the common
nuisance. In this year also, the Pound at Highgate was found to be decayed.
The parish officers in 1701 were each fined 20s. for not erecting and repairing
a pair of stocks and a ducking stool. The proprietors of the Hampstead
Waterworks were also fined £10 for allowing their water pipes to leak on to
the highway.

Highgate Grammar School, founded by Sir Roger Cholmeley, was
situated in Hornsey (outside the parish of St. Pancras and the County of
London), and its site is not within the area covered by this volume. It is,
however, intimately connected with the inhabitants of Highgate, and has an
important bearing on its ecclesiastical history. Old Highgate was never a
parish, although the chapel belonging to Sir Roger Cholmeley's Free School
developed into what virtually served as a chapel of ease for both Hornsey and
St. Pancras, and the school itself declined to the status of an elementary school
attached to the chapel. Their relative positions were reversed through a
successful agitation which led to the judgment in the Court of Chancery in
1826 which declared that it was not a chapel of ease and that the public had
no right there. Henceforth the endowment was restored to its original
purpose and Sir Roger's foundation developed into a great public school,
while the formation of a District Chapelry by Order in Council and the
erection of St. Michael's Church in 1832 provided for the spiritual needs of
Highgate. Although it was not a civil or ecclesiastical entity the village was a
little community with a life of its own, which, indeed, in some measure it yet
retains, despite its being merged in the surrounding urban area. Until the
erection of St. Michael's Church, burials took place in the chapel and in its
burial ground, and the chapel possessed its own registers.

Sir Roger Cholmeley, formerly Lord Chief Justice of the King's
Bench, is the historical personage whose name is best known in Highgate.
He founded the "Free Grammar School of Sir Roger Cholmeley, knight" in
1565, and was buried at St. Martin's, Ludgate Hill, on 2nd July in the same
year. It is disappointing that the court rolls for that period are not available
to determine the exact site of his house. It will be seen from the historical
notes that Cholmeley owned land at the north end of Waterlow Park, as well as
the site of Holly Terrace and the former Holly Lodge estate, together with land
now included in the grounds of Witanhurst. He also owned property on the
Hornsey side of the High Street (including Townsends Yard) and at Crouch
End. We are, therefore, left to surmise the exact location of his house. The
relevant facts are too numerous to work out here, but it may be tentatively
placed on the site of Fairseat, or thereabouts. Jasper Cholmeley, esquire, of
Worcestershire, J.P., and Quorum of Middlesex, Clerk of the Writs, to whom
Sir Roger appears to have bequeathed his Highgate property, and who
died on 31st October, 1586, aged 48, mentions in his will (fn. 10) a tenement which
he purchased of John Martyn "next my orchard" (see p. 90). If this means
next the orchard attached to his residence, it is fairly certain that he lived in the
house containing 15 hearths, occupied in 1665 by Major Gunstone,
represented to-day by Fairseat.

Cholmeley

Finally, a note on the object and scope of this Survey may be of
assistance to our readers. When originally started in 1894 its object was to
draw attention to the architectural and historical monuments of bygone
generations primarily with a view to arousing a desire for their preservation.
The scope of the Survey was limited roughly to monuments dating up to the
end of the 18th century that were still standing in the year 1894. The
volumes were therefore in the nature of a register, with brief historical notes
on the more important buildings. With the closer co-operation of the London
County Council the historical side of the work has developed far beyond the
dreams of the original founders. In the present volume rather more has been
said about the 19th century than is usually the case, but no attempt has been
made to deal with that period exhaustively. Much more can be found in the
pages of Mr. John H. Lloyd's History and in the Heal and Potter Collections.

A Sketch Map of the Hamlet of Highgate
Showing the old buildings included in this Survey of 1936

This plan does not attempt to represent Highgate at any particular date. The roman numerals correspond to those of the respective sections of the book.